This week’s Time Capsule looks at the breaking of a world record, PTA founder Alice Birney McClellan’s home and the 100-year old Lost Mountain Store.

100 years ago …

In the Friday, April 25, 1913 edition of The Marietta Journal and Courier there was a front page story about the recent meeting of the First Baptist Church adding 62 members. Rev. G.S. Tumlin was reported as also having baptized 45 people the previous Sunday.

There was also a full page advertisement for W.A. Florence’s “Stop! Look! Listen!” sale on the second page of that week’s paper. Some of the bargains under a nickel included 4 cent Ladies black hose, 30 by 12 inch towels with red borders for 3½ cents, a dozen pearl buttons for 3 cents and embroidered Ladies handkerchiefs for 4 cents.

50 years ago …

In the Sunday, April 21, 1963 paper there was a story about several thousand Cobb County school students expecting to be shifted to five junior high schools in the fall as the Board of Education made the move to a new junior high school system.

Also that day, a group of Roswell Road property owners refused to grant free rights-of-way for widening the heavily travelled city road east of the Four Lane (U.S. Highway 41). While opposing the current State Highway Department plans to expand the narrow two lane road to four 12 foot lanes, the property owners did indicate they would work with the city for an alternate solution.

Five dancers were reported in the Monday, April 22, 1963 paper as having broken the world’s Swing-A-Thon record over the weekend at Marietta’s Larry Bell Auditorium by dancing continuously for 62 hours and 30 minutes before being halted by the city’s curfew law. The dance-off was held on a challenge from Finland where a Helsinki couple had set the old world record of 60 consecutive hours.

The Cobb Advisory Board was reported in the Tuesday, April 22, 1963 paper as having adopted a policy of providing free emergency treatment for prisoners injured at county penal institutions – but balked at paying for long-range medical care for those injuries.

Another story that day reported that Cobb Sen. Ed Kendrick had called on Gov. Carl Sanders to look into the possibility of having the state purchase the Alice Birney McClellan home in Marietta as a historic shrine. The late Mrs. McClellan, a native Mariettan, was the founder of the Parent Teacher Association (PTA) movement in the country. Her home was located at the corner of Kennesaw Avenue and Church Street.

In the Wednesday, April 24, 1963 paper it was reported that the Cobb Hospital Authority had hired the Atlanta architectural firm of Wilfred J. Gregon & Associates to design a proposed 200-bed hospital in the south Cobb area. The Atlanta firm agreed to draw up preliminary plans – and ask for pay only if the hospital authority’s application for Hill-Burton funds were approved. The hospital authority hoped that it might start construction on the new hospital by July 1964.

20 years ago …

U.S. Rep. Newt Gingrich, R-east Cobb, following his seven-day trip to Russia was quoted in the Monday, April 19, 1993 MDJ as saying that economic aid, relaxed trade restrictions and strong U.S.-Russia relations were needed to keep Russia from a return to communism and further economic collapse. Rep. Gingrich traveled to Russia as part of a 14-member congressional delegation on a fact-finding mission led by House Majority Leader Richard Gephardt, D-Missouri. Delegation members visited Moscow, Kiev, St. Petersburg and Nizniy Novgorod, a city once closed to westerners under Communist rule because of nuclear research.

In the Tuesday, April 20, 1993 paper, the Cobb Historic Preservation Commission voted unanimously in a hastily called and little-publicized meeting to allow George Morgan Development Co. of Atlanta to move one of the county’s most famous historic landmarks, the 100-year old Lost Mountain Store. The move was supposed to make way for developers of a shopping mall at the intersection of Mars Hill and Lost Mountain roads in west Cobb. The store, however, was later renovated into a branch of United Community Bank and remains at its original location as part of a Publix supermarket shopping center.

Damon Poirier is the Newsroom Administrator for the Marietta Daily Journal.

If you are interested in learning more about the stories that were presented in this week’s column, you can search the newspaper’s digitized microfilm archives online. NewsBank, which hosts the archives for the Marietta Daily Journal, charges a fee for retrieved articles and has various price packages available. If you have any trouble with your username, password or payment options, please contact NewsBank at mariettadaily@newsbank.com.

*We welcome your comments on the stories and issues of the day and seek to provide a forum for the community to voice opinions. All comments are subject to moderator approval before being made visible on the website but are not edited. The use of profanity, obscene and vulgar language, hate speech, and racial slurs is strictly prohibited. Advertisements, promotions, and spam will also be rejected. Please read our terms of service for full guides